Family of Brooklyn man shot dead while trying to stop deli robbery forgives his killers

Damion Francis’ mother says of the men who killed him while he tried to stop them from robbing a deli in Brooklyn: "I pray that they will give themselves up, and I do really forgive them.” (Ken Murray/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

The parents of a Brooklyn father fatally shot while trying to de-escalate a gunpoint robbery at a deli harbor no hatred toward their son's killers.

"I pray that they will give themselves up, and I do really forgive them," the grieving mother said.

The father of a 4-year-old son had just left a GED class when he got off a bus and ducked into the 560 Grocery and Food Store on Remsen Ave. in East Flatbush, his mother said.

When two robbers burst into the store, menacing a worker with a gun, Francis, a construction worker, tried to defuse the situation, police said.

"He was just trying to calm the guy down," the mother said, "to see if he could stop him from what he was trying to do."

The courageous act wasn't out of character for Francis, his father, Paul Bailey, 55, said.

"My kids know right from wrong," he said. "I took my time to teach them."

But the gunman turned on the soft-spoken Francis and loosed a bullet into his stomach — leaving him fatally wounded.

He was killed at this deli Oct. 27 in Brooklyn. (Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News)

"It's hard to know I've lost my son because of some guy trying to a rob a store," Beverly Bailey said. "They took someone's life who was trying so hard to make it in life and make a difference."

That difference was trying to motivate people around him through his actions, bettering his situation, and keeping an open ear for what his son wanted for Christmas, family said.

"He was always trying to encourage other people — 'I'm going to start (to get a GED), I'll prove it's not that hard,'" his father said. "Even while he was working he was going to school to get his GED."

Cops ask anyone with information on the killing to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577 TIPS. All calls are confidential.